org.argouml.cognitive
Class ItemUID

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--org.argouml.cognitive.ItemUID

public class ItemUID

extends java.lang.Object

Instances of this class is supposed to be attached to other instances of other classes to uniquely identify them. It is intended that such a tagging should be persistent over saving and loading, if applicable.

The class also harbors the getIDOfObject(Object, boolean) which provides a way to get the ItemUID of any object with a method ItemUID getItemUID() and creating new ItemUIDs for any object with a method setItemUID(ItemUID) using reflection in java.

Field Summary

protected java.lang.String	_id This actual ID of this instance.
protected static java.lang.Class	_myclass Keeps a reference to the Class object of this class
protected static Category	cat

Constructor Summary

ItemUID()
Constructs a new ItemUID and creates a new ID for it.

ItemUID(java.lang.String param)
Constructs a new ItemUID and uses the String param as the ID.

Method Summary

protected static java.lang.String	createObjectID(java.lang.Object obj) Tries to create a new ID for the object.
static java.lang.String	generateID() Generates a new unique ID and returns it as a String.
static java.lang.String	getIDOfObject(java.lang.Object obj, boolean canCreate) Obtains the ID of an object and returns it as a String.
protected static java.lang.String	readObjectID(java.lang.Object obj) Tries to read the ID of the object.
java.lang.String	toString() Returns the ID of this ItemUID as a String.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

cat

protected static Category cat

_myclass

protected static final java.lang.Class _myclass

Keeps a reference to the Class object of this class

_id

protected java.lang.String _id

This actual ID of this instance.

Constructor Detail

ItemUID

public ItemUID()

Constructs a new ItemUID and creates a new ID for it.

ItemUID

public ItemUID(java.lang.String param)

Constructs a new ItemUID and uses the String param as the ID. Mainly intended to be used during loading of saved objects.

Parameters:

param - The ID to used for the new instance.

See Also:

toString()

Method Detail

toString

public java.lang.String toString()

Returns the ID of this ItemUID as a String. If everything works all such Strings will be unique. It is possible to created a new identical ItemUID using this String.

Overrides:

toString in class java.lang.Object

Returns:

The ID as a String.

See Also:

ItemUID(String)

generateID

public static java.lang.String generateID()

Generates a new unique ID and returns it as a String. The contents of the String is supposed to be unique with respect to all Strings generated by other instances of this class.

Returns:

A String with unique content.

getIDOfObject

public static java.lang.String getIDOfObject(java.lang.Object obj,
                                             boolean canCreate)

Obtains the ID of an object and returns it as a String. If canCreate is true it will try to create a new ID for the object if it has none.

Returns:

The ID of the object, or null.

readObjectID

protected static java.lang.String readObjectID(java.lang.Object obj)

Tries to read the ID of the object. It uses the reflective properties of java to access a method named getItemUID of the object which is expected to return an ItemUID.

Returns:

The ID of the object, or null.

createObjectID

protected static java.lang.String createObjectID(java.lang.Object obj)

Tries to create a new ID for the object. It uses the reflective properties of java to access a method named setItemUID(ItemUID). If that method exist and doesn't throw when called, then the call is assumed to have been successful and the object is responsible for remembering the ID.

Returns:

The new ID of the object, or null.